A wide variety of chemical and mechanical processes have been developed in an effort to control pollution from effluent streams in various industries. Impurities in the streams include suspended solids and dissolved particles. Both chemical and mechanical methods have been employed to cause the impurities to coalesce to permit removal by filters, centrifuges, separators, and clarifiers. The goal of the processes is to remove sufficient impurities to allow the effluent liquid to be discharged into the environment with an acceptable amount of adverse impact.
Efforts to treat water by use of electricity to coalesce and remove impurities have existed for many years. One such effort is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,271,814 which issued to David M. A. Metzler, on Mar. 19, 1992.
Past efforts to achieve coalescence of contaminants in effluent streams without the use of added chemicals have met with some success, but have also had problems with efficiency, cost, flexibility and disposal of the coalesced materials. In addition, many systems require batch processing rather than continuous processing. Accordingly, there is a need for a novel system which can remove impurities from effluent streams and can operate as a continuous process.